Making refugees feel welcome here

TODAY marks three years since the start of the landmark Community Sponsorship scheme to support the resettlement of refugees in the UK. The first family were put up by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace. Since then almost 300 other refugees have received an equally warm welcome — albeit in slightly less grand surroundings. Londoners have been among the most eager to embrace the scheme.

Community Sponsorship allows groups of ordinary people to support a refugee family starting a new life in the UK. People have offered a home, friendship network, English lessons and more. As the founder of one welcome group in south London put it, it’s a great way of “sewing refugees into the fabric of our society”.

The Home Office plans to extend the scheme, in addition to its target to resettle 5,000 people over the next year. I hope it will now ensure all resettled refugees have equal rights to remain in the UK and are entitled to the same support.

Ruth Tanner

Head of Humanitarian Campaigns, Oxfam